DEARBORN, Mich. – No fire alarm is ever routine.
Things can change in a split second. It did for three Dearborn firefighters on Thursday who were on the roof of the Fordson Cleaners when it started to collapse.
The video has been watched around the world on television and on clickondetroit.com
Watch: Firefighters escape collapsing roof
Within hours, they found out they were stars.
"We woke up this morning. We were pretty surprised, and the phone calls. People calling us, telling us they saw us on the news," said Joe Murray, who has been a firefighter for eight years.
Firefighter Mark Farrell did not tell his wife what happened until she saw him on the news.
"I didn't really realize the helicopter was up there. (My wife) saw it later on in the night. I caught some flack for it later," the year firefighter said laughing.
View: Images of Fordson Cleaners blaze
Farrell was the one cutting a hole in the roof to vent the fire when he almost fell through.
"You don't really think about it. Like Joe says, you just try to get over to that side wall. But seeing it so many times, I guess we really avoided a crisis there," he said. "Especially when it was my feet dangling in the hole."
While many communities have cut firefighters, voters in Dearborn passed mandatory staffing for firefighters.
Murray said that made a difference in this case.
"Luckily we had both Mark and Steve. We coordinated together to grab onto a secure area and get ourselves up and over," he said.
The third man on the crew was Lt. Steve Buchholz.
The roof was made of wood in the building which was built in the 1930s.
The cause of the fire is still undetermined.
Watch: Frodson Cleaners owner after fire